ExxonMobil Historical Collection, Center for American History, The
University of Texas at Austin

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized in four subgroups: Standard Oil Company,
Mobil Corporation, Exxon Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation. Due to size,
the finding aid has been divided into several separate parts.

This series contains serial publications of Exxon
Corporation, its predecessors and subsidiaries, notably Humble Oil &
Refining Company. For the most part, these titles provided news on recent
business activities supplemented by features on various topics. The Lamp
(1918-1999), the corporation’s cornerstone publication, began as a bulletin for
Standard Oil (New Jersey) employees but evolved into a quarterly shareholder
magazine. [ExxonMobil continues to publish this title online.] Oilways (1934-1981) is
another prominent publication, which was distributed externally and used
principally as a marketing tool for the benefit of “better industrial
lubrication.” Other titles had a much smaller audience such as employees of a
particular facility (Bayway [New Jersey] Refiner) or foreign operations.
Dealers who sold Humble products received the Humble Sales Lubricator
(1932-1961) to keep current on new products and marketing strategies.

Of note are annual reports for Standard Oil (New
Jersey) (1920-1956), Humble Oil (1945-1954) and Exxon Corporation (1975-1996).
Other major titles include The News (1955-1966) and Horizons (1973-1992) for
Esso (later Exxon) Research & Engineering employees; and The Humble Way
(1945-1971) and Exxon USA (1973-1986) issued, respectively, by the public
affairs departments of Humble and its successor, Exxon Company U.S.A.

2.207/D158Wildcat [preceded
by The Humble Wildcat]
2.207/D1581973-1975[bound]2.207/D1591975-1980[bound]2.207/D1601980-1985[bound]2.207/D4519922.207/D45Windsock,
1997Series III.
History of Standard Oil Company (New
Jersey) Research Files, 1940s-1980s(10.1 ft.)

This series contains research materials from the
four-volume History of Standard Oil Company (New
Jersey), primarily written under the auspices of the Business History
Foundation. A 1944 article entitled “Danger in Business History” by Henrietta
Larson, a Harvard University business historian, precipitated both the Standard
Oil history and the establishment of the Foundation in 1947. Endowed by
Standard Oil (N.J.) and directed by members of Harvard’s business history
program, the Foundation’s primary purpose was to support the research and
writing of the Standard Oil history. The original team of scholars, George
Gibb, Muriel and Ralph Hidy, Evelyn Knowlton, Henrietta Larson, and Charles
Popple, researched volumes I-III simultaneously from the late 1940s through the
early 1950s, while Bennett H. Wall, a noted business historian and professor at
Tulane University and the University of Georgia, researched volume IV in the
late 1970s and early 1980s. Their research files are organized accordingly in
two sub-series: Volumes I-III and
Volume IV.

Volumes I-III consists
of copious notes, transcriptions and, occasionally, photostats of original
Standard Oil records, which includes internal correspondence. Files include
information on domestic and foreign affiliates and foreign operations.
Correspondence between authors and researchers is interleaved throughout their
notes, shedding light on particular aspects of their research. Particular
materials of interest include photostats of corporate records, as there is
doubt as to whether or not the originals still exist.